Garage Heroes (In Training)

GHIT 0081: Kate and Bennett Danvers of our GHiT Team

On this weekâs podcast, we were finally able to interview Kate and Bennett Danvers and share with you a bit of their background and experiences with our team. Kate shared many words, Bennett, few. We hope you enjoy the weekâs episode at:

Highlights from this episode include:

1) Overall background of each, including driving, racing, and car history of each and the family
2) How to power oversteer a John Deere tractor and the impact on the grass cut, as well as life with a Mark VI GTI first car
3) Team areas of responsibility during race weekend and upcoming changes to our team for 2020
4) Bennettâs amazing tracking abilities and what kept Kate from coming to her first race so long
5) Bennettâs claim on the fireproof one-sie and our plan to get Quinn into our insanity
6) What cars are their dream cars, especially fellow lemons paddock cars
7) Wildest racing memories, so far with Lucky Dog and the 24 Hours of Lemons
8) What we have done well so far, including the Good, Bad, and the Ugly, and some upcoming improvements we can work on. Bennett can only find good in our food, lol.
9) Bennett offers words of optimism/prediction for our 2020 season
10) Heat upgrade for our winter garage is announced, so if anyone wants to come and visit, it should be warm this winter

Bennett Battery Assassin — Bennett Danvers: Battery Assassin

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, and Alan
Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast
and team members in the GHiT
Immature Endurance Racing Team

GHIT 0081: Kate and Bennett Danvers of our GHiT Team

Discussion of The Rise of Skywalker

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

WOOT 0080: SPOILER FILLED Discussion of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

SPOILER FILLED EPISODE: On this weekends Way Off Our Topic (WOOT) episode, we try to review the most recent Star Wars movie, The Rise of Skywalker. We try to get a broad range of opinions from relatively hard core Star Wars fans to fans who have seen the movies and we also range from 11 years old to over 50. In general, we all liked the movie.

We had issues with some parts, but in general, the internet backlash is much stronger than any of us felt it should be. With us this week, we had returning Guest Jeff with his son Josh (11), returning guest Craiggers with his son Noah (18), along with Vicki and Bill.

Highlights and Discussion centers on the following points:

1) Our individual Star Wars history and fandom
2) An in-depth review of most of the major points of The Rise of Skywalker along with several discussions along the way, as well as our usual trivia bits
3) Jeff discusses Roger Bannister’s breaking of the 4-minute mile
4) New canon and force capabilities expansion
5) The very full nature of this movie plot and Craig’s very likely theory
6) Potential editing choices/options to simplify the movie and add more to sections and/or stakes to the movie
7) Is Hux really Biff
8) Force users: anyone vs by birthright/family lineage
9) Acting comparison between prequels and sequels
10) The Han Solo cameo and would it have happened is Carrie Fisher had not passed away
11) Luke’s change in tone vs Episode 8
12) Overall thoughts and rating of the movie
13) Impact of Carrie Fisher’s death on the movie and plot points
14) Star Wars: Disney vs Lucas films, Closer than you would think
15) Retcon of The Last Jedi/Episode 8
16) Favorite characters, both lead and supporting
17) Coolest Light Saber of the entire series
18) The Star Wars family tree discussion and significant Naboo commonality
19) The original sequel trilogy layout vs what we saw

Our Final Ratings:

Jeff: Wanted to shift focus and expand upon certain other areas 8.0
Josh: Too Complex, 8.0
Craig: Sith level avoidance, as would be expected, but 8.0
Noah: Avoided, rather similarly, Sith in training? 7.0
Vicki: Still shipping Ben and Rey to a 8.0
Bill: 8.5, not quite a 9 as was thought upon first viewing

And finally a check in on The Mandalorian through episode 7 and a bit about The Witcher

Did we cover everything? If not, let us know in the comments and we may have a part 2.

Best regards,
Bill, Vicki, and Alan
Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast
and team members in the GHiT
Immature Endurance Racing Team

WOOT 0080: SPOILER FILLED Discussion of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

GHIT 0079: Zack Klapman is Our Special Guest

Zack Klapman with Cobra — Zack Klapman prepping for a tough day at work

Zack Klapman is a car guy through and through and was our guest for this weekâs episode.Â You may know him from the Smoking Tire podcast and YouTube channel or from seeing him on air on the NBC /Drive show or as a producer for /Drive as well as several other television shows like âProving Groundsâ.Â We were able to talk with Zack quite a bit about his overall car interests and how he began working in the area.Â As usual, he was a decade long in the making overnight success who made it through perseverance and constant hustle.

Zack Klapman on NBC Sports Proving Grounds — Zack Klapman is not in Kansas

On this episode we covered:

1) How the recent NASA 25 Hours at Thunderhill race weekend went in their Spec E46 with all the rain and then the mud

2) Zackâs background and what he is involved with currently, both as on-air talent, as a writer, and as a producer.

3) How YouTube videos and channels have changed since The Smoking Tire originated

4) How did cars get into Zackâs blood and what his interests are at this point and in the future. Hint: He does not seem picky, lol.

5) His first Lemons race and the fun of passing a slot machine race car

6) His goals include racing in virtually all endurance racing series including AER, Lemons, Lucky Dog, Champ Car, WRL, etc. and a whole host of tracks across the US and around the world

7) We discuss his (hopefully) upcoming appearance on the âComedians In Cars Getting Coffeeâ show. We think it would be perfect for him.

8) Crazy stories from his past TV and video work, such as his very hot lap with Chris Harris at the NÃ¼rburgring that involved some of Chrisâs serious driving skills being on full display

9) Driving through Morocco while filming with a relatively small tv crew.

10) His initial learning on how to wrench on a car in a pre-YouTube era without ChrisFix

11) A very entertaining and funny Good, Bad and the Ugly segment that included some cars you never expected to hear on our podcast

12) Several audience questions

13) His upcoming driving lessons with Kevin Madsen

We ended with a few basic outlines of our team and how we started and a few tips that Zack wasnât aware of yet as a relatively new to racing driver that may help you as well.

Zack Klapman with Jeep — Prepping for another video shoot

To follow Zack, please use his social media accounts or catch the following series:

Twitter @ ZackKlapman

Instagram: FakeZackKlapman

The Smoking Tire Podcast

/Drive on NBC Sports and iTunes

Proving Grounds on NBC Sports

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast

and team members in the GHiT

Immature Endurance Racing Team

GHIT 0079: Zack Klapman is Our Special Guest

Judge Phil from the 24 Hours of Lemons

GHIT 0078: Judge Phil Greden from the 24 Hours of Lemons

On this episode we started out with one show idea and quickly flexed into another when Judge Phil Greden from the 24 Hours of Lemons was able to join us after some scheduling issues. Judge Phil is also an automotive journalist and often uses the pen name of Murilee Martin and writes for a variety of venues including Autoblog, Autoweek, Jalopnik, Truth About Cars, Car and Driver, Roadkill, and the 24 Hours of Lemons. We had been hoping to have Phil on as one of our original bucket list guests and we were not disappointed and we really hope we can get him on again, soon. His stories are priceless and seemingly endless.

Highlights and discussion topics of the episode include:

1) New installation of the permanent 240V line for the welder is complete

2) Alan tries to blame Chrissy for his mess and no one buys it, ever

3) Alan defines whatâs a bucket load of shims and then decides we arenât going to use them

4) We may have a plan for our long-awaited female only race car entry

5) Tips for working in the cold temps/potential items for Christmas gifting. Hint layers

6) Philâs latest junkyard finds and exploits and several tips for finding things of interest

7) Philâs Lemons history and how he came to be a judge at over 160 races so far

8) Tips for how to improve at lemons, as if that matters, lol.

9) Where Murilee Martin originated, the full story is at his website below

10) How the Lemons series has progressed and the culture came around to the present day

11) Our next Miata with a HT4100 engine

12) Lemons hopeful entries in the coming years, especially several late model Detroit offerings

13) Tips for finding cars particularly suited to Lemons racing

14) Theories on what makes certain car surprisingly good or surprisingly bad in endurance racing

15) The difference between the $500 limit rule as written vs as interpreted in Lemons

16) Various fruitless paths to âdominationâ that have been shown to be lacking

17) Which of the automotive journalists are really good drivers off the top of Judge Philâs head

18) Should GHiT be interested in a Lada, Phil knows a guyâ¦.

19) Potential leads and guidance on our 1974 Capri never-ending build

20) How lucky we were to start our racing team with assistance from the Three Pedal Mafia

21) Parts selling on the internet stories from over the years

22) Crazy Lemons racing stories including lightning strikes and tornado chases

23) How the post-race hangover is real, even if you arenât racing

24) The internet famous Lemons Wrap-up videos and what goes into them

25) How the driver fields differ across the US

26) Splash Gate makes a come back

27) Our traditional Good, Bad, and the Ugly per Judge Phil

28) How to get started in endurance racing and resources that are available

29) The relative importance of team/pit organization vs driving skill

We will put out another short episode to discuss the AIM Data Acquisition and Analysis seminar Bill attended last weekend that we started.

Now if only we could get a weekly segment of âStory Time with Judge Philâ. Maybe we can bribe with a seat at our races? Please let Phil know if youâd be interested.

[email protected]

http://www.murileemartin.com/

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast

and team members in the GHiT

Immature Endurance Racing Team

GHIT 0078: Judge Phil Greden from the 24 Hours of Lemons

Our Friendsgiving Work Weekend

Thank you to Chris and Chrissy

GHIT 0077: Our Friendsgiving Work Weekend

Alan, Zombie Vicki, and Bill go over our recent Friendsgiving Work Weekend with special guest from the Everyone Racers Podcast hosts, Chris and Chrissy who came up to guide, instruct, and assist us with several of our cars that, as always, need repair and improvements.

Highlights to the discussion include:

1) Our two and a half Porsche 944s that are available and soon to be posted for sale for HPDE or racing use.

2) Capri update and our updated plans going forward

3) Winter is here in Northeast PA and when the sun goes down, the temperature leaves the garage in a hurry

4) How we organize our garage for both parts and cars and how Chris helped Vicki determine what is good to keep and how to identify the unknown items we have collected since our race team started.

5) What parts are worth keeping and what parts have donated all they have to give

6) Alan’s hamster powered internet shows up again

7) Our plans for the new Honda race car project code name Godzuki

8) The difference between parts replacement projects and part fabrication projects

9) Our repair update of the race truck/El Chrissy/The Bad Hombre steering issues and exhaust leak and the potential for a power steering line cooler to be added

10) Our repair update of the BMW E36 race car

11) How many ignore the potential for their race car to be their own planetarium

12) Alan bonds with several local FLAPS in our area

13) We need a bunch of camber shims to fix our S-10

14) We have renamed our race truck due to this week.

15) Alan gives a visual description of suspension geometry

16) A discussion of our hubs and bearings for the E36 and transferring the brake cooling ducts to our other race cars

17) Vicki and Bill plan to go to a local race shop to see what is available for our use

18) Alanâs fall led to a broken jaw, so does disagreeing with Kate. You can choose which is the cover story and which is real.

19) Alan impersonates a BMW E36 while Chris was investigating our electrical wiring issues

20) Spare parts and supply at the track discussion

21) Vicki, pre-Zombie, and Bill received a welding lesson on our Miller 211 MIG welder and began the learning process in earnest

22) Vicki relates welding to her art background

23) Chris and Chrissy had a spare moment to test our Mazda MX-5 on the test track for a good shakedown run

24) Skid pad event discussion and planning for this winter/spring at Lime Rock

25) Car show Fails on YouTube, a worthwhile time waster

26) The best way to say thank you/bribe people to help you (Hint: Food, drink, and beer)

Bribing Hard — We bribe our guests hard! And that was after we ate.

Special thanks, as always to Chris and Chrissy for coming up and helping. We learned a ton and accomplished quite a bit. We hope our bribes of food, drink, and racing were sufficient to lure you up again, hopefully soon.

If anyone wants a garage tour, we could put up a video (excuse the mess) on our YouTube channel. Just let us know.